Latest comments posted about Hard times for China’s local environment officials on ChinaDialogue en-gb http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/1583-Hard-times-for-China-s-local-environment-officials http://staging.chinadialogue.net/images/cdlogo.gif http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/1583-Hard-times-for-China-s-local-environment-officials The three-part comments posted by He Meiwen are brilliant. I think chinadialogue should commission an article from her. Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:30:33 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1583#comment-7186 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1583#comment-7186 When we talk about environmental protection, people usually think that it is the business of the government, especially in China, where NGOs are usually seen as a supplementary force of the government. In fact, the energy and ability of the government are limited, so giving more power to NGOs and supporting them will help the government increase its work effectiveness in tackling environmental problems. This works in the same way suggested by Chairman that "we should rely on the public". Currently the problem is not the capability of NGOs in China but the less confidence of the government in NGOs. Environment protection is one of the key issues which matter most to the public, thus pubic participation is of great importance to it. Fri, 28 Dec 2007 01:06:28 -0500 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1583#comment-6286 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1583#comment-6286 I personally, support vertical management, although it must be a limited form of vertical management which emphasizes mechanism coordination. Above all, responsibility must be regulated on a legal level. Clause 16 of the PRC environmental protection law states: local government officials at all levels must take responsibility for environment quality in the area under their jurisdiction, and adopt measures to improve environment quality. If vertical managament is implemented, local environment bureaus will no longer be at the same level as local government, hence diminishing the responsibility of local government towards the environment. Vertical management would be best applied at provincial or local level. Such systems are currently in place in many locations up to municipal level. As polluting enterprises, the focal point of national and provincial environmental control, are in the cities, sub-provincial management is essential. As vertical management requires the coordination of a multitude of different locations, many provinces could benefit from increased connection and efficiency. County and city-level vertical management requires coordinated implementation by the National Environmental Department. This in turn calls for support from central government. Vertical management focuses on enforcing the efficiency of environmental monitoring and observation. Local research centres already established by the National Environmental Department would serve as an excellent complement to vertical management. Currently, work in district research centres is predominantly dedicated to tasks assigned by higher government, such as pollution-reduction checks, recording of environmental accidents, and specialised action. There is a lack of coordination between the centres and provincial-level environmental organizations. This is due to the way in which responsibility was divided when the organizations were established, the unfriendly relationship that exists between them and local bureaus. Another cause is the 'wait and see' attitude of both the organizations and the bureaus. To achieve a coordinated mechanism between the two, opinions and environmental data must be shared, and regular communication established. Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:14:24 -0500 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1583#comment-5907 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1583#comment-5907 Statistics fails to reflect the enviromental problems in China is a big issue. China is in dire need of setting up a national system to offer reliable environmental statistics and monitor the environment. The country should attach more importance to monitoring the enviroment and promote the status of related departments. Verticall managment,reliable information, technological support, as well as a functional and strong environment-monitoring system are key to tackling all environmental issues. Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:15:42 -0500 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1583#comment-5908 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1583#comment-5908 However, vertical mangement could not solve the essential problem environmental sectors face, whose efficiency and success rely on the coordination with other local government departments. For instance, it needs to suspend water supply and electric power to force the pollution factories to change, or it requires sufficient financial support to encourage factories to obey the laws; Moreover, when other departments are granted welfares, environmental department is always ignored as it is under higher authority and could not benefit local governments as the industry, commerce and taxation departments do. This, to some extent, discourages and defeats the initiatives of environment staff. Also, it is even less likely that the environment bureau could participate in making local policies, because environment bureau is usually not invited to join local county government meeting for an allegedly reason that "they (environment staff) are under the administration of city government and beyond our control". More importantly, the current pollution-reducing effort is under charge of local government officials. So if environment department is not under local government's control, what kind of responsiblity it should take? Vertical management is supposed to solve the problems of local government neglecting and not protecting the environment. And it should also strengthen supervision. In China today, environment protection, more particularly pollution reduction, has already been hailed as a political mission (ecological civilization), though many local government officials still could not understand the importance of the task. However, when local government officials' positions are linked to efforts in pollution reduction and environment quality improvement, they will have to make bigger efforts to do the job. So this also means that it makes no big difference whether vertical management is applied or not. But the second problem seems more tricky. If environment protection achievement could have a great impact on officials' political careers, environment departments will be working under growing pressure from local governments. It will worsen, to some extent, the situation that only offering favorable statistics instead of achieving as good environment protection as the figures indicate locally. To tackle this problem, vertical mangement seems more effective and important. Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:10:34 -0500 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1583#comment-5906 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1583#comment-5906 Vertical management will not solve the problem. Many officials, experts, international organizations and observers are very concerned about the power distribution and working mechanism within the SEPA and are working hard to have it promoted to be a ministrial department in China. Shortage of resources and being understaffed are problems facing the environmental departments at the county level in China. It is hard to imagine the work quantity as there are usually only five people working in the environment department at the county level, including the director and deputy director. This means there are not enough staff to take on the environmental supervison work. Is the vertical management suggested by the author really instrumental in solving the problem? Surely, the vertical management can ensure the environmental protection orders by the Central government can be implemented locally without being ignored and infringed by local governments. Thus, local environmental officials can fulfill their tasks without being required to follow the wills of local governments to put GDP ahead of the environment. Also, the vertical management offers a good chance to uplift the administrative status of local envirnomental departments. As a result, local environment officials will be treated better and obtain more respect. This is one of the reasons to promote the vertical management. By He Meiwen Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:07:08 -0500 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1583#comment-5905 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1583#comment-5905